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Discussion Topic: Right Wing Operative and Man that Scammed ACORN, James O'Keefe Arrested! |
1 grassroot |
01-26-2010 @ 4:27 PM |
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James O'Keefe, ACORN Foe, Arrested for New Stunt
James O'Keefe was riding high last year when he released a series of videos showing employees of community-organizing group ACORN offering advice to O'Keefe and a friend that seemed to endorse trafficking in children, among other illegal activities.
The undercover videos made O'Keefe a star in conservative circles and presumably helped him muster the courage for another high profile stunt ? though this time, it seems, things went badly for the 25-year-old.
O'Keefe and three others ? including the son of an acting U.S. Attorney, are accused of trying to manipulate the phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. According to an release from the United States Attorney's Office, witnesses say O'Keefe was in Landrieu's office when two co-conspirators came in "dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat" and pretended to be there to repair the phones.
O'Keefe allegedly filmed the men handling the main reception-area phone in the senator's office with a cell-phone camera. The faux-repairmen, who are believed to have been attempting to tap the phones, then asked for access to the telephone closet to work on the main telephone system; asked for identification after being directed there, they said they had left their credentials in their vehicle.
The four men ? O'Keefe, the two fake telephone repairman, and another alleged co-conspirator ? are now "charged in a criminal complaint with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, announced the United States Attorney?s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana." They could face up to ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The men had an initial appearance this afternoon in court, where they were released on a $10,000 UN-secured bond. A preliminary hearing has been set for February 12th, though that will be cancelled if an indictment is filed before then. Landrieu's office declined comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
O'Keefe, a former Rutgers University student, has a history of stunts that predates his ACORN hidden-camera work: According to the Star-Ledger, he "mounted a satirical campaign to ban Lucky Charms cereal from campus dining halls on the premise the breakfast fare was offensive to Irish-Americans" as a student.
He told the newspaper the tone of his videos, which include an investigation of Planned Parenthood, is unique.
"I'm not just reporting on something, I'm becoming something I'm reporting on," said O'Keefe.
This message was edited by grassroot on 1-26-10 @ 9:13 PM
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| 2grassroot |
01-26-2010 @ 9:13 PM |
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James O’Keefe Arrested, Undercutting ACORN Allegations
James O'Keefe, who became a conservative media star last year for his videos skewering ACORN, was among four people arrested for trying to tap the phones in Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. The story is borderline comical. According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes, O'Keefe was loitering around Landrieu's office when his two alleged accomplices, "each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light fluorescent green vest, a tool belt, and carrying white, construction-style hard hat," came in, claimed they were from the phone company, and asked for access to the phones. O'Keefe used his mobile phone to film them.
It sounds like something out of the tritest kind of television script. And, if the charges are true, that's actually not terribly surprising. Judging by the ACORN caper, O'Keefe's style isn't simply to prove corruption but stupidity. It's ironic, then, that the rank lack of sense in his latest alleged stunt calls into question his ACORN charges.
His ACORN video, you will recall, featured shots of him dressing as a caricature pimp, with a similarly attired "prostitute," asking ACORN workers for help setting up prostitution rings, trafficking in children, and evading taxes. The message was ACORN perfidy; the sub-text was: Not only are these people corrupt, they're too stupid to see an obvious set-up. One can imagine the same sub-text surrounding whatever scheme he was (apparently) attempting with Landrieu's office: Not only are they corrupt, but we snared them with a plot contrivance straight out of the worst kind of spy TV. But it turns out that O'Keefe is less Michael Westen than Michael Scott.
This story is rife with humorous possibilities--this prostitution prankster sought corruption in the office of a Louisiana senator ... who wasn't David Vitter?--but this is a real problem for conservatives. Imagine their mixture of outrage and glee if, say, Michael Moore was caught in similar circumstances? And: What kind of person thinks it's a smart idea to try to tap the phones of a U.S. senator's office? One answer is that if you wander far enough into the political fringe--on either end of the spectrum--you find people who think their pursuit of the greater good transcends ordinary laws (not to mention artistes who think their work liberates them from mundane concerns). This may well be the case.
O'Keefe got heaping amounts of praise, including from the conservative corners of this blog, for his ACORN work. The group and its allies insist that he told a one-sided story, using shady editing and cherry-picking a few bad workers to paint the entire organization as corrupt. He was defended as a fearless investigative journalist. But the Landrieu stunt, if proven, would blow a hole in that defense. If he is willing
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| 3grassroot |
01-27-2010 @ 7:03 AM |
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Andrew Breitbart, conservative commentator and owner of the blog Biggovernment.com where footage of ACORN was released, has criticized media reports on the arrest.
"Mainstream Media, ACORN, Media Matters (all the supposed defenders of due process and journalistic ethics) are jumping to conclusions over the arrest.... with the clear intention to smear and, if possible, convict O'Keefe and his alleged co-conspirators in the court of public opinion in order to taint the 'jury of their peers,' " he wrote on Biggovernment.com
"MSNBC and other 'news organizations' are even billing this developing story as 'Watergate,' " he added. "What do Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow know? And when did they know it?"
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LOL....
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| 4grassroot |
01-29-2010 @ 10:33 PM |
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Running for the hills!
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Breitbart: I Pay A Salary To Alleged Landrieu Plotter O'Keefe
Conservative new media figure Andrew Breitbart revealed last night on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that he pays a salary to James O'Keefe, the filmmaker who was charged yesterday in an alleged attempt to tamper witt the phones of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
But Breitbart, who runs the Big Government site where O'Keefe's now-famous ACORN sting videos were posted, is maintaining that he had no "connection to" the incident at Landrieu's New Orleans office.
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O'Keefe was a featured speaker at a Pelican Institute luncheon in Louisiana days before his arrest. But institute President Kevin Kane said Wednesday that he had no idea what happened at Landrieu's office or what the four were doing there.
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Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said Republicans once praised O'Keefe as an American hero, "yet today, in light of these deplorable and illegal attacks on the office of a United States senator by their champion, Republicans have not offered a single iota of disgust, a whisper of indignation or even a hint of outrage."
This message was edited by grassroot on 1-29-10 @ 10:54 PM
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| 5grassroot |
01-29-2010 @ 10:35 PM |
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Alleged Landrieu Phone Tamper Crew Emerged From World Of Conservative Campus Journalism
Three of the four young men charged in the alleged phone tampering attempt at Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office Monday were involved in the well-funded, opportunity-rich world of conservative campus journalism in recent years, a link that provides potential clues about how the men knew each other and why they came to hatch the alleged plot.
James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, and Stan Dai each founded or led the alternative conservative newspapers on their respective college campuses.
After graduating, O'Keefe, the filmmaker behind the ACORN stings, actually worked for a year as a recruiter for the Leadership Institute, one of a handful of conservative organizations that provide seed money to students who want to launch alternative newspapers.
Fostering the growth of alternative media on campus -- publications that are more often National Review-style opinion journals than reporting-intensive newspapers -- has been a tactic of the conservative movement for decades. The Collegiate Network, for example, was founded in 1979 and supports over 100 papers per year. CampusReform.org, the campus component of the Leadership Institute, employs 16 staffers
Our first case is Stan Dai, who served as the editor-in-chief of the GW Patriot at George Washington University. Dai was also a Club 100 Activist of Young America's Foundation, and an Undergraduate Fellow on Terrorism of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies, according to a scholarship citation at the conservative Philips Foundation (h/t Lindsay Beyerstein).
Stan DaiDai was reportedly picked up by authorities Monday a few blocks away from Landrieu's office, sitting in a car with a listening device that could pick up transmissions.
The GW Patriot, it's worth noting, is the same paper that produced John McCormack, the Weekly Standard scribe with the habit of getting into scuffles at political events.
Both O'Keefe and Basel seem to have gotten their start in the conservative college press with a little bit of help from the Leadership Institute, the group that aims to recruit and train conservative activists.
In an interview with the two men posted Jan. 14 on the Leadership Institute's CampusReform.org, it's noted that O'Keefe founded The Centurion at Rutgers and Basel launched The Counterweight at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Both "were started with assistance from the Leadership Institute's 'Balance in Media' grant."
Leadership Institute Vice President David Fenner confirmed to TPMmuckraker that O'Keefe received $500 from the Leadership Institute to start the Centurion, but couldn't confirm any details of Basel or Dai's possible Leadership Institute backing.
It is possible, however, that O'Keefe met Dai or Basel through his work with the Leadership Institute.
For about a year around 2007, O'Keefe was an employee of the Leadership Institute, Fenner confirmed. His job was to visit college campuses to recruit and train conservative activists who might want to start publications on their own campuses.
"I have no idea if [O'Keefe] met [Basel] through the training," Fenner said. "There's obviously a high likelihood. Only Basel could tell us that."
Fenner said the Leadership Institute no longer has a formal relationship with O'Keefe.
Operating on liberal campuses, conservative student media tend to thrive on an anti-establishment stance, relying on small staffs, gonzo tactics, and shock value to have a big impact. (For examples, read up on the pioneering work of the Dartmouth Review.) The strategy is not unlike O'Keefe's successful pimp-and-hooker ACORN sting videos, and it's possible the same background informed whatever was planned in the Landrieu "operation."
It's also worth noting that the CampusReform interview with Basel and O'Keefe -- posted less than two weeks ago -- is prefaced with this intriguing note from the editor:
"To protect their ongoing investigations, I can't say exactly when or where the interview was conducted, but the contents are below."
quote:
obamaman
January 27, 2010 11:33 AM in reply to Alex Carson
Yeah, listening device in the car, and the affidavit clearly states that they all admitted to planning and coordinating the operation, and obviously they were trying to execute it before getting busted.
Really, your desperate attempts at spinning this as no biggie is a massive FAIL. This isn't a situation where a possible killer hasn't been found--these guys were caught redhanded and the feds are gonna come down on them like a ton of bricks. Maybe they thought it was just another college prank, but it's not, it's federal property and attempting to bug a U.S. Senator who sits on a sensitive committee. We're talking federal crime here and it couldn't happen to a better bunch of stupid wingnuts. Now the folks who paid them and honored one of them in congress, among others, are going to have to answer some questions.
Karma can be a real bitch, eh pimp daddy? ROTFLMAO
This message was edited by grassroot on 1-29-10 @ 10:44 PM
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| 6RoyRogers |
01-30-2010 @ 8:33 AM |
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On the Fox News site, O'Keefe's name is always missing. Instead, the folks at Fox calls him the 'ACORN pimp', trying their best to be negative about the group ACORN once again.
The key here is that O'Keefe committed a federal offense and he is going to jail for a few years.
Education is a tool. Use it.
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| 7grassroot |
02-01-2010 @ 7:19 PM |
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As the O'Keefe case turns! I am should there is going to be more fallout.
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US Attorney leaves Landrieu 'Phone Caper case'
The top federal prosecutor for New Orleans removed himself on Monday from the case of four conservative activists arrested last week while trying to capture hidden camera footage in a senator's office.
The Department of Justice said in a news release Monday that Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, recused himself from the investigation of what happened in Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. Letten's top lieutenant, assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, is taking over the case.
The news release didn't say why Letten was removing himself, and his spokeswoman Anna Christman said she couldn't comment.
One of the suspects is the son of Letten's Shreveport-based counterpart.
Another man who was arrested, daredevil videographer James O'Keefe, has said the group wanted to investigate complaints that constituents calling Landrieu's office couldn't get through. Landrieu's office has said O'Keefe's explanation is feeble, and the case should be thoroughly investigated.
In the Jan. 25 incident, authorities said O'Keefe used his cell phone to try to capture video of two other men who posed as telephone repairmen and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office. The fourth is accused of waiting outside in a car with a listening device that could pick up transmissions.
O'Keefe is known nationally for hidden-camera videos targeting the community-organizing group ACORN.
Also arrested were Robert Flanagan of New Orleans.
Flanagan is the son of the Shreveport-based acting U.S. attorney for Louisiana's Western District, William Flanagan.
Robert Flanagan's lawyer, J. Garrison Jordan, said he doesn't know why Letten left the case.
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| 8mulberry |
02-01-2010 @ 10:05 PM |
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Grass,
Louisiana is the STATE of CORRUPTION..it goes back to Huey P Long, Edwin Edwards now Piyush Jindal. The problem is these bastards committed a federal crime and their punishment is to be under their parents supervision? Wait one minute..they are all over the age of 18 and the age of majority in Louisiana is 21. And they are trying to circumvent this law, but they are older. They should not have recieved such a low bond. They should still be in jail. This story will die only if we let it.
But a brown man with an pinch of weed will serve a life sentence. Why are we silent on this. Hummm!! Its time to get on Landrieu and the rest of the crooks.
Live Free or Die Trying
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| 9MasofCCI |
02-01-2010 @ 10:43 PM |
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Mulberry,
Concur. Additionally, those intentional slip ins about him being "a youth" "kid" "a prank." Words to invoke an image and thought process for the public such as "just slap his wrist and send him on his way." If he was black and 18, the word would be "Man" --- invoke "Responsibility" for his actions as a Man---someone eligible to receive a harsh punishment.
Mas
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| 10mulberry |
02-01-2010 @ 10:49 PM |
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MAS,
There is even a more cynical plot to this story as I found and trying to verify the information. Its believed that these pales were trained by the CIA and engaged in black ops. The father of two of them has since recused themselves from the case but not before they got them out of jail. The bail was $10,000 for a federal felony crime.
Live Free or Die Trying
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| 11grassroot |
02-02-2010 @ 8:01 AM |
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quote:
Its believed that these pales were trained by the CIA and engaged in black ops.
And I concur!
quote:
Additionally, those intentional slip ins about him being "a youth" "kid" "a prank." Words to invoke an image and thought process for the public such as "just slap his wrist and send him on his way."
How come they weren't youth kids and a prank when they were playing a stupid ass unreal pimp and whore in their effort to bring down ACORN.
quote:
Edited on Sat Jan-30-10 09:23 AM by peacetalks
for all that are involved with the evidence that hasn't been revealed to us. They are in their twenties, not teens. They didn't come up with this while high on alcohol or drugs, they plotted this - in their own words - to destroy. He announced on some trip to St. Louis that he was planning something good for New Orleans that we would all hear about. When it's murder or destruction, doesn't the entire court look at intent, motivation, the result they were going for?
This was no prank and it wasn't an accident.
This is a person who anyone could call a smart-axx, know-it-all, publicity seeking, bigoted, manipulative person who is flying high on this God-awful tribute submitted and voted on in the House of Representatives that is now in the Congressional Recored from like minded malicious minds.
Now we find out that his lawyer is a highly qualified Republican who if he were innocent and there wasn't a trail would take this person on?
I would think that you would be asking that the money behind all of this be followed.
This guy is not 15 years old. This guy is not 15 years old. And that's what your suggestion implies.
Let's see what the court room reveals with the charges. It's too early. He's innocent until proven guilty.
But there is one thing we know out of the gate. He broadcast his purposes and he's on a roll playing roles for which he has already made money and was probably going to make more money - if only from a job and speaking engagements to bigots and logic-flippers.
Let's see if this was just a phone camera or recorder and costume prank. Or not.
This message was edited by grassroot on 2-2-10 @ 9:18 AM
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| 12grassroot |
02-02-2010 @ 8:06 AM |
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quote:
There is even a more cynical plot to this story as I found and trying to verify the information.
I hope you are able to verify this one!
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| 13sl8 |
02-02-2010 @ 9:20 AM |
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read between the lines guys......
O'Keefe and three others ? including the son of an acting U.S. Attorney, are accused of trying to manipulate the phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. According to an release from the United States Attorney's Office, witnesses say O'Keefe was in Landrieu's office when two co-conspirators came in "dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat" and pretended to be there to repair the phones.
remember the movie the spook who sat by the door?
ok....
extrapolate....
these dudes are PROTECTED..and apparently are PAID to do dirty work....
in truth, SL8
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| 14grassroot |
02-02-2010 @ 10:42 AM |
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quote:
these dudes are PROTECTED..and apparently are PAID to do dirty work....
I think we new that from ACORN!
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| 15grassroot |
02-03-2010 @ 7:55 PM |
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James O'Keefe's race problem/James O'Keefe Just Really Likes White People
Over on Salon, Max Blumenthal has a nice rundown of ACORN pimp turned failed eavesdropper James O'Keefe and his history of racially-hostile conservative activism. Below are a few highlights
Now an activist organization that monitors hate groups has produced a photo of O'Keefe at a 2006 conference on "Race and Conservatism" that featured leading white nationalists. The photo, first published Jan. 30 on the website of the anti-racism group One Peoples Project shows O’Keefe at the gathering, which was so controversial even the ultra-right Leadership Institute, which employed O'Keefe at the time, withdrew its backing. But O'Keefe and fellow young conservative provocateur Marcus Epstein soldiered on to give anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism an opportunity to share their grievances and plans to make inroads in the GOP.
A bit more
By O’Keefe’s own account, his racial troubles became acute when he entered the multicultural atmosphere of Rutgers University’s dormitory system. In an online diary that has since been scrubbed from the Web (but not before being captured on Daily Kos), he wrote that he was forced to live on an all-black dormitory floor after refusing to live with the gay roommate he was initially assigned. O’Keefe claimed his next roommate was “an Indian midget…who smelled like shit.” The roommate left, however, and was replaced by “a greek kid.” The new roommate complained to a residential administrator that O’Keefe had called his neighbors “niggers,” prompting the school to expel him from the dorm. He rejected the accusation as a “complete lie,” writing, “I was lead out of the room crying and screaming at him and my situation, no friends, no one one [sic] to talk to, forced to go in front of a black man, Dean Tolbert, to defend myself and help explain that I did not call anyone any names.”
Aaaand a bit more
O’Keefe lost his job at the Leadership Institute in 2008 for a prank call he made to an Ohio-based Planned Parenthood clinic. During the call, O’Keefe offered a donation to the clinic on the condition that it would be earmarked to pay for aborting African-American fetuses. “Because there's definitely way too many black people in Ohio,” O’Keefe remarked to the receptionist. “So, I'm just trying to do my part.”
And before you accuse The Buzz of taking things out of context or attempting to be inflammatory, we urge you to read the article in full and make up your mind from there.
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| 16BWPStaff |
02-26-2010 @ 1:16 PM |
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James O'Keefe is just one more white person afraid the rise of Black people threatens his very being. My recommendation: get over it!
[The site avatar creates discussions from community & popular topics]
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| 17grassroot |
03-12-2010 @ 10:51 AM |
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Judge Instructs Fed Agencies to Resume ACORN Funding
A federal judge has reaffirmed her earlier ruling blocking the congressional effort to de-fund the anti-poverty group ACORN. On Wednesday, Judge Nina Gershon cemented a decision from last year that such action amounted to an unconstitutional “bill of attainder.” Judge Gershon has asked all federal agencies to allow ACORN funding without delay. We speak with National Housing Institute president John Atlas, author of Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Anti-Poverty Community Group.
A federal judge has reaffirmed her earlier ruling blocking the congressional effort to de-fund the anti-poverty group ACORN. On Wednesday, Judge Nina Gershon cemented a decision from last year that such action amounted to an unconstitutional “bill of attainder.” Judge Gershon has asked all federal agencies to allow ACORN funding without delay. The congressional vote followed the release of videos appearing to show ACORN staffers offering advice to two right-wing activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. ACORN has long been a target of right-wing scorn for its work helping low-income Americans with voter registration, tax problems and foreclosures
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| 18grassroot |
03-19-2010 @ 6:07 PM |
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The Rightwing Witch Hunt Against ACORN
After 18 months of screaming headlines and attacks vilifying the anti-poverty group ACORN--attacks reminiscent of a New McCarthyism that threatened the group's very existence--it's clear now that this was a right-wing witch-hunt which, sadly, too many Democrats and the mainstream media failed to fact-check.
In December, the Congressional Research Service cleared ACORN of allegations of improper use of federal funding and voter registration fraud. The latest to weigh-in on the controversy is Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. After a four-month investigation Hynes declared "no criminality has been found" with regard to the conduct of three ACORN employees in the infamous and--turns out--misnamed "pimp-prostitute" video.
In fact, a law enforcement source told the New York Daily News that the unedited version of the video which caused all the outrage "was not clear."
"They edited the tape to meet their agenda," said the official.
Conservative operative James O'Keefe--who was later arrested after an alleged attempt to bug the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans--was in reality wearing a white shirt and khakis in the ACORN office and posing as a law school student trying to protect his girlfriend from an abusive pimp. The outrageous pimp outfit was shot later and used to promote the video.
"O'Keefe and the Fox attack machine targeted ACORN because of our successful work to empower hundreds of thousands of low and moderate families as voters and active citizens," said ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan. "Hopefully [the DA's] announcement, and similar results from independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is attacked."
The damage already done to ACORN includes severely curtailing its work helping low-income people with tax preparation and obtaining the Earned Income Tax Credit, fighting foreclosures, and investigating wage and hour exploitation of workers. The hysteria has also driven away private funding, and there is "defund ACORN" language in the recently signed Omnibus bill that ACORN and the Center for Constitutional Rights are fighting in court.
As a result of the funding struggle, local chapters of ACORN are now reconstituting themselves as separate, stand-alone organizations with their own names. 17 state groups have either done that or will do that by the end of the month.
Fox and tabloids like the New York Post did a hatchet-job on ACORN that too many in the mainstream media were eager to run with. It seems to me those outlets have a special obligation to now step up and tell the full story. Also, contact New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt, Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander, and other major newspapers. Tell them their publications should run front-page retrospectives on the ACORN story--how and why the media and politicians got it wrong and what the consequences have been to ACORN.
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